Jesus was cleansing us from all sin

JESUS WAS CLEANSING US FROM ALL SIN
EDITED BY GLENN PEASE
1 John 1:7 7But if we walk in the light, as he is in the
light, we have fellowshipwith one another, and the
bloodof Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.
BIBLEHUB RESOURCES
Walking in the light and washedin the blood
C. H. Spurgeon.
You perceive in the text that the Christian is spokenof as a man who is in the
light; but there is something more said of him than this. He is practically in
the light, "if we walk in the light." He walks in the light of faith, in another
path than that which is trodden by men who have nothing but the light of
sense. He sees Him who is invisible, and the sight of the invisible God operates
upon his soul; he looks into eternity, he marks the dread reward of sin, and
the blessedgift of God to those who trust in Jesus, andeternal realities have
an effect upon his whole manner and conversation:hence he is a man in the
light, walking in that light. There is a very strong description given here — "If
we walk in the light as He is in the light." When a schoolmasterwrites the
copy at the head of the page, he does not expect that the boy will come up to
the copy; but then if the copy be not a perfect one, it is not fit to be imitated by
a child; and so our God gives us Himself as the pattern and copy, "Be ye
imitators of Godas dear children," for nothing short of Himself would be a
worthy model. But what does it mean, that the Christian is to walk in the light
as God is in the light? We conceive it to import likeness, but not degree. We
are as truly in the light, we are as heartily in the light, we are as sincerely in

the light, though we cannot be there in the same degree. Having thus briefly
sketchedthe characterofthe genuine Christian, observe that he is the
possessorof two privileges; the first is, fellowship with God. "We have
fellowship one with another"; and the secondis, complete cleansing from sin
— "and the blood of Jesus ChristHis Son cleansethus from all sin." The first
privilege we will have but a word upon; it is fellowshipwith God. He opens
His heart to us and we open our heart to Him; we become friends; we are
bound and knit together, so that being made partakers of the Divine nature,
having escapedthe corruption which is in the world through lust, we live like
Enoch, having our conversationabove the skies.
I. The first thing that struck me was THE GREATNESSofeverything in the
text. To what a magnificent scale everything is drawn.
1. Think how greatthe sin of God's people is!
2. Then observe the greatness ofthe atonement offered. It must be no man,
merely; it must be the God-man mediator, the fellow of Jehovah, co-equaland
co-eternalwith Him, who must bear the bitterness of Divine wrath which was
due to sin.
3. Think again: we have here greatlove which provided such a sacrifice.
II. The next thing which sparkles in the text, is its SIMPLE SOLITARINESS,
"We have fellowship one with another"; and then it is added, as a gloriously
simple statement, "the blood of Jesus Christ His Soncleansethus from all
sin."
1. Observe, here is nothing said about rites and ceremonies orabout Christian
experience as a means of cleansing.
2. Observe, again, that in the verse there is no hint given of any emotions,
feelings, or attainments, as cooperating with the blood to take awaysin. The
blood is the alone atonement, the blood without any mixture of aught beside,
completes and finishes the work, "Forye are complete in Him."

III. A third brilliant flashes in the light, viz., THE COMPLETENESSof the
cleansing. "The bloodof Jesus ChristHis Son cleansethus from all sin" — not
from some sin, but "from all sin."
IV. The next gem that studs the text is the thought of PRESENTNESS.
"Cleanseth,"says the text, not "shall cleanse."The moment a sinner trusts
Jesus, that sinner is as fully forgiven as he will be when the light of the glory
of God shall shine upon his resurrectioncountenance.
V. Now, in the fifth place, the text presents to us very blessedlythe thought of
CERTAINTY. It is not "perhaps the blood of Jesus Christ cleansesfrom sin,"
the text speaks ofit as a fact not to be disputed — it does do so.
VI. The sixth gem which adorns the text is the DIVINITY of it. Does it not
strike you that the verse is written in a God-like style? God seems to put away
His pearls as if they were but common pebbles. "The blood of Jesus Christ His
Son cleansethus from all sin" — as if it were as much a matter of everyday
work as for a man to washhis hands.
VI. In the last place, just a hint upon the WISDOM of the text. I cannotsee sin
pardoned by the substitutionary atonementof the Lord Jesus, without
dedicating myself to the praise and glory of the greatGod of redeeming love.
If God had devised a scheme by which sin could be pardoned, and yet the
sinner live to himself, I do not know that the world or the man would be
advantaged. Now henceforthat the foot of the Cross the bands which bound
our soul to earth are loosened.
(C. H. Spurgeon.)
The supreme importance of moral purity
Homilist.
First, that Christianity is basedupon the palpable facts in the history of an
extraordinary person. The personis here said to be "from the beginning" —
"which was with the Father";is called "the Word of life," "Eternallife."
Secondly, that these palpable facts were observedby competentwitnesses,

who have transmitted them to us for moral ends. The apostles were
intellectually and morally competent.
I. MORAL PURITY IS THE ESSENCE OF THE DIVINE CHARACTER.
"Godis light." Light is mysterious in its essence. "Who, by searching, canfind
out God?" Light is revealing in its power;through it we see all things. The
universe can only be rightly seenthrough God. Light is felicitating;the animal
creationfeels it. He is the one "blessed"God. Light is pure, and in this sense
God is calledlight. There are three things which distinguish God's holiness
from that of any creature: — First, it is absolutely perfect. Not only has He
never thought an erroneous thought, felt a wrong emotion, performed a
wrong act, but He never can. In Him there is no darkness at all. Secondly, it is
eternally independent. The holiness of all creatures is derived from without,
and depends greatly upon the influences and aids of other beings. But God's
holiness is uncreated. The holiness of creatures is susceptible of change.
Thirdly, it is universally felt. Where is it not felt? It is felt in heaven. "Holy,
holy, holy, Lord God Almighty," is one of the anthems that resound through
the upper world. It is felt in hell. All guilty consciences feelits burning flash. It
is the consuming fire.. It is felt on earth. The compunctions of conscience.
II. THAT MORAL PURITY IS THE CONDITION OF FELLOWSHIP
WITH GOD. "If we say that we have fellowship with Him," etc. Three things
are implied here: — First, that fellowship with God is a possible thing. John
assumes this as something that need scarcelybe argued.
1. That the fellowship of a moral being with its Creatoris antecedently
probable. God is the Fatherof all intelligent spirits; and is it not probable that
the Fatherand the child should have intercourse with eachother?
2. Man is in possessionofmeans suited to this end. If it be said that God is
invisible — that we cannotcommune with Him — we may reply by saying
that man is invisible, and we do not commune with him. The spirit with which
we commune in man we see not. How do we commune with man? Through his
works. Throughhis words. Through memorials. We have something in our
possessionwhichbelongedto another; given, perhaps, to us as a keepsake.
Secondly, that fellowshipwith God is a desirable thing. John assumes this.

Nothing is more desirable for man than this. Thirdly, that this fellowshipwill
ever be characterisedby a holy life. Purity is the condition of fellowship.
III. THAT MORAL PURITY IS THE END OF CHRIST'S MEDIATION.
"The blood of Jesus Christ," etc.
(Homilist.)
Children of light
Scientific Illustrations, etc.
There are children of light and children of darkness. The latter shun the
bright, the pure azure shining skyof truth with all its loving beams. Their
world is like the world of insects, and is the world of night. Insects are all light
shunners. Even those which, like the bee, labour during the daytime, prefer
the shades ofobscurity. The children of light are like the birds. The world of
birds is the world of light — of song. Nearlyall of them, says Michelet, live in
the sun, fill themselves with it, or are inspired by it. Those of the south carry
its reflectedradiance on their wings; those of our colderclimates in their
songs;many of them follow it from land to land.
(Scientific Illustrations, etc.)
The best life the product of the bestlight
A manufacturer of carmine, who was aware ofthe superiority of the French
colour, went to Lyons and bargainedwith the most celebratedmanufacturer
in that city for the acquisition of his secret, for which he was to pay one
thousand pounds. He was shown all the process,and saw a beautiful colour
produced; but he found not the leastdifference in the Frenchmode of
fabrication and that which had been constantlyadopted by himself. He
appealedto his instructor, and insisted that he must have concealed
something. The man assuredhim that he had not, and invited him to see the
process a secondtime. He minutely examined the waterand the materials,

which were in every respectsimilar to his own, and then, very much
surprised, said, "I have lost my labour and my money, for the air of England
does not permit us to make goodcarmine." "Stay," saidthe Frenchman,
"don't deceive yourself-what kind of weatheris it now?" "A bright, sunny
day," replied the Englishman. "And such are the days," said the Frenchman,
"on which I make my colour. Were I to attempt to manufacture it on a dark
or cloudy day my results would be the same as yours. Let me advise you
always to make carmine on bright, sunny days."
Interrupted fellowship
Fellowship.
When they were laying the Atlantic cable the engineers found the
communication interrupted, and when they had taken it up sufficiently they
found the difficulty was occasionedby a small piece of wire, only about twice
the length of a pin, which, by some means, had been driven through the
covering of the cable, and carriedoff the electric fluid. So a very small thing
will put us out of fellowshipwith God, and interrupt our communion with
heaven, and the only secretofa constantcommunion is a constantcleansing
from all sin.
(Fellowship.)
The blood of Jesus Christ His Soncleansethus from all sin
The evil and its remedy
C. H. Spurgeon.
(with Ezekiel9:9): — I shall have two texts this morning — the evil and its
remedy. "The iniquity of the house of Israeland Judah is exceeding great";
and "The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleansethus from all sin."
I. I begin with the first doctrine, "The iniquity of the house of Israel and
Judah is exceeding great." Some menimagine that the gospelwas devised, in

some way or other, to soften down the harshness ofGod towards sin. There is
no more harsh condemnation of sin anywhere than in the gospel. Moses
charges you with sin, and tells you that you are without excuse;but as for the
gospel, it rends awayfrom you every shadow of a covering. Nordoes the
gospelin any way what ever give man a hope that the claims of the law will be
in any way loosened. WhatGod hath said to the sinner in the law, He saith to
the sinner in the gospel. If He declareththat" the soul that sinneth it shall
die," the testimony of the gospelis not contrary to the testimony of the law. Do
you reply to this, that Christ has certainly softeneddown the law? I reply, that
ye know not, then, the mission of Christ. Before Christ came sin seemedunto
me to be but little; but when He came sin became exceeding sinful, and all its
dread heinousness startedout before the light. But, says one, surely the gospel
does in some degree remove the greatness ofour sin. Does it not soften the
punishment of sin? Ah! no. Moses says,"The soulthat sinneth, it shall die."
And now comes Jesus Christ, the man of a loving countenance. Whatother
prophet was the author of such dread expressions as these? — "He shall burn
up the chaff with unquenchable fire," or, "Where their worm dieth not, and
their fire is not quenched." The proclamationof Christ today is the same as
the utterance of Ezekiel, "The iniquity of the house of Israeland Judah is
exceeding great." One sin, remember, destroyedthe whole human race. Think
againwhat an imprudent and impertinent thing sin is. It is thing so audacious,
so full of pride, that one need not marvel that even a sin in the little eye of
man, should, when it is lookedupon by the consciencein the light of heaven,
appear to be greatindeed. But think again, how great does your sin and mine
seem, if we will but think of the ingratitude which has marked it. Oh, if we set
our secretsins in the light of His mercy, if our transgressionsare setside by
side with His favours, we must eachof us say, our sins indeed are exceeding
great!
II. "Well," cries one, "there is very little comfort in that. It is enough to drive
one to despair." Ah! such is the very design of this text. If I may have the
pleasure of driving you to a despair of your self-righteousnessand a despair of
saving your ownsoul, I shall be thrice happy. We turn, therefore, from that
terrible text to the secondone, "The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth
us from all sin." There lies the blackness;here stands the Lord Jesus Christ.

What will He do with it? He will do a far better thing than make an excuse or
pretend in any way to speak lightly of it. He will cleanse it all away. Dwellon
the word "all." Our sins are great;every sin is great;but there are some that
in our apprehension seemto be greaterthan others. There may be some sins
of which a man cannotspeak, but there is no sin which the blood of Christ
cannot washaway. Blasphemy, howeverprofane; lust, howeverbestial;
covetousness,howeverfar it may have gone into theft and rapine; breach of
the commandments of God, howevermuch of riot it may have run, all this
may be pardoned and washedawaythrough the blood of Jesus Christ. Just
take the word "all" in another sense, notonly as taking in all sorts of sin, but
as comprehending the greataggregate mass ofsin. Come here, sinner, thou
with the greyhead. Couldst thou bear to read thine own diary if thou hadst
written there all thy acts? No;for though thou be the purest of mankind, thy
thoughts, if they could have been recorded, would now, if thou couldst read
them, make thee startle and wonder that thou art demon enough to have had
such imaginations within thy soul. But put them all here, and all these sins the
blood of Christ can washaway. Yet, once more, in the praise of this blood we
must notice one further feature. There be some of you here who are saying,
"Ah I that shall be my hope when I come to die, that in the last hour of my
extremity the blood of Christ will take my sins away;it is now my comfort to
think that the blood of Christ shall wash, and purge, and purify the
transgressions oflife." But, mark! my text saith not so; it does not saythe
blood of Christ shall cleanse — that were a truth — but it says something
greaterthan that — it says, "The blood of Jesus Christ His Soncleanseth" —
cleansethnow. Come, soul, this moment come to Him that hung upon the
Cross of Calvary! come now and be washed. But what meanestthou by
coming? I mean this: come thou and put thy trust in Christ, and thou shalt be
saved.
(C. H. Spurgeon.)
The atonementof Christ
F. Spencer.

Let us view the text —
I. AS POINTING OUT ITS VALUE. It declares the wayof pardon to be by
the blood of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. It is the blood of Him whose name is
Jesus;a name which causeththose who know it to be joyful in Him that bears
it. It is the blood of one appointed and commissionedto save His people from
the guilt, the power, the practice, and the love of sin.
II. AS DECLARING ITS CONTINUAL EFFICACY. The blood of Jesus
Christ His Son cleansethfrom all sin; it has a cleansing quality. Oh! what
greatreasonhave we all to lament the polluted state of man. When the apostle
says, "The blood of Christ cleanseth,"it evidently implies that His blood is the
only means of obtaining pardon. And this efficacyis perpetual.
III. AS ASSERTING ITS UNIVERSAL INFLUENCE. It cleanseth, not all
persons, but from all sin. Since it was the blood of so greata person as the
Son,ofGod, it is as powerful to cleanse us from the greatestsin as from the
least. It is a universal remedy.
(F. Spencer.)
The Passionofour Lord our cleansing
Bp. A. P. Forbes.
I. THE INSTRUMENTOF OUR CLEANSING IS SAID TO BE THE
BLOOD OF JESUS CHRIST.
1. Now the blood is the life thereof, and therefore, in the first place, we obtain
the idea that Christ's life has been given in expiation of our sins, and we get
the idea of satisfaction, inasmuchas the life of an innocent person has been
takenin atonementfor the sins of those of whom that innocent person is a
constituent member.
2. But next, the idea of blood especiallyconveys to us that element of self-
immolation and self-sacrificewhichso markedly distinguishes the work of

Christ. The blood is the most intimate and precious thing which a man can
have.
3. Again, the idea of blood conveys to us the notion of priestly lustration and
cleansing. It places before us the present office of Christ, who, having entered
into the holy place once for all, forever appears before the celestialaltar
pleading His Passionbefore the eternalFather, and presenting His perpetual
sacrifice.
II. WHOSE BLOOD IT IS THAT CLEANSETHFROM ALL SIN. Whose
blood? It is the blood of Jesus Christi The apostle speaksofthe Church of
God, which He hath purchased with His own blood. God's own blood! What
an awful and wonderful expression!and yet it only enunciates the truth, that
God the Son has takento Himself a human body, not to reign in, but to suffer
in; not to be glorified in, but to die in; to suffer that we might rejoice, to die
that we might live forever.
III. THE EFFECT OF THIS POTENTOUTPOURING OF THE LIFE OF
GOD. It cleansethus from all sin. It is not mere remission. It is not mere
averting the punishment. It is not mere pronouncing man just when he is in
fact unjust. It is all this and more. By cleansing we mean making that pure
which before was foul, and this is what we attribute to the blood of Christ. We
believe that in that blood there is such a virtue as to be able to transform the
sinful nature of man into an imperfect but real image of the holiness of God;
that before its might all that is base and unclean fades away, and that, like the
chemist's potent elexir, it transmutes the baser elements with which it comes
into contactinto a new and more perfect substance. Again, the blood of Christ
suggeststo us such cleansing as comes from washing. Thatsea of blood which
flowed from the Saviour's veins is the laver wherein our souls are washed
from all the soils with which the indulgence of sin defiles them. No harboured
guilt, no vain delight, no bosominiquity can withstand the rushing flood of
grace that pours into the soul. God will not save us without ourselves, as St.
bears witness;and therefore the efficacyof all that God has done for us
depends in one sense upon ourselves.
(Bp. A. P. Forbes.)

The efficacyof the Redeemer's blood
James Bromley.
I. The blood of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, cleanses us from all sin by
making an atonement for all the guilt of sin; by providing for our
JUSTIFICATION. Pardonis never partial; and for this simple reason — the
atoning blood of Christ reaches to one sin as well as to another; it is
satisfactionin full, and therefore, when the merit of it is receivedby faith, all
past sin is freely, fully forgiven.
II. The blood of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, cleansethus from all sin, by
procuring for us that measure of the gracious influence of God's Holy Spirit,
which may deliver us from all the power and from all the principle of sin. In
other Words, it provides for our SANCTIFICATION.
1. This doctrine of deliverance from all sin contains nothing more than what.
the nature of sin, if properly understood, makes imperatively necessary. The
evangelicalcovenantdoes not speak ofthe expulsion of degrees ofsin, but of
the expulsion of its principle.
2. The doctrine in question contains nothing beyond what it must be admitted
the Divine Spirit is competentto perform.
3. Whateverexception may be takento this doctrine of deliverance from all
the powerand principle of sin, the thing itself is indispensably necessaryto
our happiness.
4. We say nothing but what all orthodox Christians admit must be done
sometime. The controversy, therefore, only turns upon the point when this
momentous work is to be accomplished. If this work be done at all, it must be
either in eternity or in time. If the work cannot take place in eternity, then it
must in time. Shall I ask, How long before the spirit quit its tabernacle? Five
minutes? an hour? a day? a week? Why then not a year? why then not now?
5. When we insist upon this principle, we insist on nothing but what uniformly
appears on the inspired page (Psalm 51:10;Matthew 5:8; Ephesians 3:19).

(James Bromley.)
Cleansing virtue of Christ's blood
Bp. Hacket.
It is a short but a full panegyric of the virtue of the blood of Christ.
1. In regard of the effect — cleansing.
2. In regard of the cause of its efficacy. It is the blood of Jesus, a Saviour. The
blood of the Son of God, of one in a specialrelationto the Father.
3. In regard to the extensiveness ofit — all sin. No guilt so high but it can
master; no stain so deep but it can purge. Doctrine:The blood of Christ hath
a perpetual virtue, and doth actually and perfectly cleanse believers from all
guilt. This blood is the expiation of our sin and the unlocking our chains, the
price of our liberty and of the purity of Our souls. The redemption we have
through it is expressly calledthe forgiveness of sin (Ephesians 1:7). As the
blood of the typical sacrifices purified from ceremonial, so the blood of the
Anti-typical Offering purifies from moral uncleanness.The Scripture places
remissionwholly in this blood of the Redeemer.
1. The blood of Christ is to be consideredmorally in this act.
2. The cleansing is to be doubly considered. There is a cleansing from guilt
and a cleansing from filth — both are the fruits of this blood. The guilt is
removed by remission, the filth by purification. Christ doth both. The one
upon the accountof His merit, the other by His efficacywhich He exerts by
His Spirit. These both spring up from the death of Christ, yet they belong to
two distinct offices ofChrist. He justifies us as a surety, a sacrifice by
suffering, as a Priest by merit. But He sanctifies us as a King by sending His
Spirit to work efficaciouslyin our hearts. By virtue of His death there is no
condemnation for sin (Romans 8:1-3). By virtue of the grace ofHis Spirit
there is no dominion of sin (Romans 6:4-14).

3. This cleansing from guilt may be consideredas meritorious or applicative.
As the blood of Christ was offeredto God this purification was meritoriously
wrought; as particularly pleaded for a person it is actually wrought; as
sprinkled upon the conscienceit is sensibly wrought. The first merits the
removal of guilt, the secondsolicits it, the third ensures it. The one was
wrought upon the Cross, the other is actedupon His throne, and the third
pronounced in the conscience. The first is expressedRomans 3:25: His blood
rendered God propitious. The second, Hebrews 9:12: As He is entered into the
holy of holies. The third, Hebrews 9:14: Christ justifies as a sacrifice in a way
of merit, and when this is pleaded God justifies as a Judge in a way of
authority.
4. The evidence of this truth well appears.
5. From the credit it had for the expiation and cleansing ofguilt before it was
actually shed and reliance of believers in all ages onit. The blood of Christ
was applied from the foundation of the world, though it was not shed till the
fulness of time. We must distinguish the virtue of redemption from the work
of redemption. The work was appointed in a certain time, but the virtue was
not restrainedto a certain time. Severalconsiderations willclearthis.(1) The
Scripture speaks but of one persondesignedfor this greatwork (John 1:29).
As God is the God of all that died before Christ came, as well as of those that
lived after; so Christ is the Mediatorof all that died before His coming, as well
as of those that saw His day.(2) This one Mediatorwas setforth ever since the
fall of man, as the foundation of pardon and recovery.(3)Thoughthese
promises and prophecies of the expiation and cleansing ofsin were something
obscure to them and though they did not exactly know the method, how it
would be accomplished, yet that sin should be pardoned was fully revealed,
and something of the method of it might be known unto them.(4) The ancient
patriarchs had faith, and were actually pardoned.(5) And this might well be
upon the accountof the compact betweenthe Father the Judge and the Son
the Redeemer. Had he not promised the shedding of His blood, justice had
dislodgedthe sinner from the world. This was the true and sole end of His
incarnation and death. All the ends mentioned by the Angel Gabriel to Daniel
centre in this and refer to it. "To finish the transgression, make an end of sin,
and make reconciliationfor iniquity, and to bring in everlasting

righteousness"(Daniel9:24), and thereby should all the visions and
prophecies concerning the Messiahand His work be fulfilled.(6) This is the
fundamental doctrine of the gospel. The apostle, therefore, with a particular
emphasis, tells them this is a thing to be knownand acknowledgedby all that
own Christianity (1 John 3:5).(7) There could be no other end of His shedding
His blood but this. Since His death is called a sacrifice (Ephesians 5:2), a
propitiation (1 John 2:2; Romans 3:25), it can be for no other end but the
cleansing of sin.
6. The cleansing sin is wrought solelyby His own worth, as He is the Son of
God. It is, therefore, saidin the text the blood, not only of Jesus Christ but of
the Sonof God. The blood of Jesus receivedits value from His Sonship, the
eternal relation He stoodin to His Father.Since sin is an infinite evil no mere
creature can satisfyfor it, nor can all the holy works ofall the creatures be a
compensationfor one actof sin, because the vastestheap of all the holy actions
of men and angels would never amount to an infinite goodness, whichis
necessaryfor the satisfactionof an infinite wrong.
1. Hence it follows that sin is perfectly cleansedby this blood.(1) The blood of
Christ doth not perfectly cleanse us here from sin, in regardof the sense of it.
Some sparks of the fiery law will sometimes flash in our consciencesandthe
peace ofthe gospelbe put under a veil. Evidences may be blurred and guilt
revived: Satanmay accuse, andconscienceknows nothow to answerhim.
There will be startlings of unbelief, distrusts of God, and misty steams from
the miry lake of nature. But it hath laid a perfectfoundation, and the top
stone of a full sense and comfort will be laid at last. Peace shallbe as an
illustrious sunshine without a cloud; a sweetcalmwithout any whisper of a
blustering tempest. As God's justice shall read nothing for condemnation, so
conscienceshallread nothing for accusation. The blood of Christ will be
perfect in the effects of it. The soul shall be without fault before the throne of
God (Revelation14:5).(2)The blood of Christ doth not perfectly cleanse us
here from sin in regardof the stirrings of it. The Old Serpent will be
sometimes stinging us and sometimes foiling us. But this blood shall perfect
what it hath begun, and the troubled sea of corruption that sends forth mire
and dirt shall be totally removed (Hebrews 12:23).(3)But the blood of Christ
perfectly cleansethus from sin here in regardof condemnation and

punishment. Thus it blots it out of the book of God's justice; it is no more to
be remembered in a way of legaland judicial sentence againstthe sinner.
Though the nature of sin doth not cease to be sinful, yet the power of sin
ceasethto be condemning. Where the crime is not imputed the punishment
ought not to be inflicted. It is inconsistent with the righteousness ofGod to be
an appeasedand yet a revenging Judge. When the cause ofHis angeris
removed the effects ofHis angerare extinguished. Herein doth the pardon of
sin properly consistin a remissionof punishment. The crime cannot be
remitted, but only in regardof punishment merited by it. If God should
punish a man that is sprinkled with the blood of Christ it would be contrary
both to His justice and mercy. To His justice because He hath acceptedof the
satisfactionmade by Christ who paid the debt. It would be contrary to His
mercy, for it would be cruelty to adjudge a person to punishment who is
legally discharged.(4)The effectof this blood shall appear perfectat the last in
the final sentence. Itcleansethus initially here, completelyhereafter. It
cleansethus here in law. Its virtue shall be manifest by a final sentence. There
is here a secretgrant passedin our consciences;there, a solemn publication of
it before men and angels.(5)Hence it cleansethfrom all sin universally. He
was delivered for our offences (Romans 4:25) — not for some few offences,
but for all; and as He was delivered for them so He is acceptedfor them. Men
have different sins, according to their various dispositions or constitutions.
Every man hath his own way. And the iniquity of all those various sins of a
different stamp and a contrary nature in regard of the acts and objects God
hath made to meet at the Cross of Christ, and laid them all upon Him (Isaiah
53:6) — the sins of all believing persons, in all parts, in all ages ofthe world,
from the first moment of man's sinning to the lastsin committed on the earth.
I. How CHRIST'S BLOOD CLEANSETHFROM SIN. God the Father doth
actually and efficiently justify; Christ's blood doth meritoriously justify. God
the Fatheris consideredas Judge, Christ is consideredas Priestand Sacrifice.
This is done —
1. By taking sin upon Himself.
2. By accounting the righteousnessand sufficiency of His sufferings to us.(1)
This cleansing of us by imputing this blood to us is by virtue of union and

communion with Him.(2) This union is made by faith, and upon this account
we are said to be justified by faith.
II. THE USE. If the blood of Christ hath the only and perpetual virtue and
doth actually and perfectly cleanse believers from all sin, then it affords us —
1. A use of instruction.(1) Every man uninterested by faith in the blood of
Christ is hopeless ofa freedom from guilt while he continues in that state.(2)
No freedom from the guilt of sin is to be expectedfrom mere mercy. The
figure of this was notable in the legaleconomy. The mercy seatwas not to be
approachedby the high priest without blood (Deuteronomy9:7). Christ
Himself typified by the high priest expects no mercy for any of His followers
but by the merit of His blood. The very title of justification implies not only
mercy but justice; and more justice than mercy, for justification is not upon a
bare petition but a propitiation.(3) There is no ground for the merits of saints
or a cleansing purgatory.(4) No mere creature can cleanse from sin. No finite
thing can satisfyan infinite justice;no finite thing can remit or purchase the
remissionof an injury againstan Infinite Being. A creature canno more
cleanse a soul than it canframe and govern a world and redeem a captived
sinner.(5) There is no righteousness ofour own, no services we cando,
sufficient for so greata concern. To depend upon any or all of them, or
anything in ourselves, is injurious to the value and worth of this blood; it is
injurious also to ourselves;it is like the setting up a paper wall to keepoff a
dreadful fire, even that consuming one of God's justice. And there is good
reasonfor it.(a) No righteousness ofman is perfect, and there[ore no
righteousness ofman is justifying.(b) The designof God was to justify us in
such a way as to strip us of all matter of glorying in ourselves, and therefore it
is not by any righteousness ofour own.(6) We are therefore justified by a
righteousness imputed to us. The blood of Christ cleansethus from all sin. It is
not physically or corporally applied to us, but juridically, and therefore
imputed to us, and that for justification (Romans 5:9).
III. USE OF COMFORT. The comfortof a believerhath a strong and lasting
foundation in the blood of Christ.

1. The title is cheering. The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son. The titles of the
blood of Godand the righteousness ofGod are enough to answerall
objections, and testify a virtue in it as incomprehensible as that of His
Godheadwhich elevatedit to an infinite value. What wounds are so deep that
they cannot be healedby the sovereignbalsam of so rich a blood? The blood
of Christ is as much above the guilt of our sins as the excellencyof His person
is above the meanness of ours.
2. And who can fathom the comfort that is in the extensiveness ofthe object?
All sin. All transgressionsto it are like a grain of sand or the drop of a bucket
to the ocean— no more seenor distinguished when it is swallowedup by that
mass of waters. It is a plenteous redemption.
3. And doth not the word "cleanse" deserve a particular consideration? What
doth that note but —(1) Perfection? It cleanseththeir guilt so that it shall not
be found (Jeremiah50:20). What canjustice demand more of us, more of our
Saviour, than what hath been already paid?(2) Continuance of justification.
The present tense implies a continued act. Hence will follow security at the
last judgment. His blood cleansethfrom all sin here, and His voice shall
absolve from all sin hereafter.
IV. USE OF EXHORTATION. Have recourse only to this blood upon all
occasions since it only is able to cleanse us from all our guilt.
(Bp. Hacket.)
The cleansing blood
T. De Witt Talmage.
1. The blood of the Cross was royalblood. It is calledan honour to have in
one's veins the blood of the house of Stuart, or of the house of Hapsburg. It is
nothing when I point you to the outpouring blood of the King of the Universe?
It is said that the Unitarians make too much of the humanity of Christ. I
respond that we make too little. If some Roman surgeon, standing under the
Cross, had caughtone drop of the blood on his hand and analysedit, it would

have been found to have the same plasma, the same disc, the same fibrine, the
same albumen.
2. It was unmistakably human blood.
3. I go still further, and sayit was a brother's blood. If you saw an entire
strangermaltreated, and his life oozing awayon the pavement, you would feel
indignant. But if, coming along the street, you saw a company of villains
beating out the life of your own brother the sight of his blood would make you
mad. You would bound into the affray. That is your brother, maltreatedon
the Cross.
4. It was substitutionary blood. Our sins cried to heavenfor vengeance.Some
one must die. Shall it be us or Christ? "Let it be me," said Jesus.
(T. De Witt Talmage.)
The cleansing blood
J. Morgan, D. D.
I. CONSIDERTHE CONNECTION OF THE TEXT. The blood of Christ and
its cleansing efficacyare associatedwith fellowship. The question is, what is
the relationbetweenthem to which the apostle adverts? Without it we can
have no fellowship with the Father(Hebrews 9; Hebrews 10). The penitent
sinner, carrying the blood of Jesus in the hand of faith, and sprinkling the
mercy seat, may have fellowshipwith the God and Fatherof our Lord Jesus
Christ. The same law obtains in holding fellowshipwith the Son also. How
impressively this lessonis taught in His own ordinance of the Supper. That
ordinance is the out ward expressionof fellowship with Him, and it thus
teaches how that fellowship is to be enjoyed. Nor is there any other basis on
which believers canhold fellowship with one another as the followers of
Christ. They may truly say, "The cup of blessing which we bless," etc. The
death of Christ is the bond of their union. They are alike sinners, and have no
hope but the death of Jesus. It is to be borne in mind also that fellowship in all
these views with the Father, and the Son, and believers, as it is begun by the

receptionof this doctrine, must ever be maintained by the application of it.
We cannever come to God otherwise, and we may always come to Him by the
peace-speaking bloodof Jesus.
II. THE BLESSED DOCTRINEITSELF. The statementexpresses boththe
efficacyof the blood of Christ and the reasonof it.
1. Whence does the efficacyof the blood of Christ to cleanse from sin arise?
Not merely from Divine appointment, although there was a Divine
appointment. That appointment was made because it was seenby the
Omniscient mind to be effectual. It constituted at once the "powerof God and
the wisdomof God."
2. The efficacyitself — "It cleansethfrom all sin."(1)There is original sin.(2)
There is againactualsin. Alas! how mightily does it prevail.(3) There is,
farther, the guilt of sin. How fearfully is it accumulated!Which of God's
commandments has not the sinner broken?(4)So also is there the power of
sin. It might be supposedthis was not to be overcome.(5)Yet againthere are
the sins of believers.(6)Eventhe best services ofbelievers, however, are not
faultless. Often, while others applaud them, they are ashamedto lift up their
faces to the Lord. They canlook for acceptanceonly through the merit and
mediation of Jesus Christ.
3. Bloodmust be sprinkled before it is made effectual. Under the law, all
things were purged by blood. The book, the people, the tabernacle, and the
vessels ofthe ministry, were sprinkled with blood. So must it be with our
souls. It will not suffice that the blood of Christ has been shed. It must be
applied to the conscience.
(J. Morgan, D. D.)
Cleansethfrom all sin
Bp. Westcott.

so that men are made like to God, in whom is no darkness (ver. 5). The
thought here is of "sin" and not of "sins";of the spring,, the principle, and
not of the separate manifestations.
(Bp. Westcott.)
"Cleanseth
Frances R. Havergal.
Not a coming to the fountain to be cleansedonly, but a remaining in it, so that
it may and cango on cleansing;the force of the tense a continuous present,
always a presenttense, not a present which the next moment becomes a past.
(Frances R. Havergal.)
"The blood
Expositor's Bible.
This word declares more vividly than any other could do three greatrealities
of the Christian belief — the reality of the manhood of Jesus, the reality of His
sufferings, the reality of His sacrifice.
(Expositor's Bible.)
COMMENTARIES
MacLaren's Expositions
1 John

WALKING IN THE LIGHT
1 John 1:7.
John was the Apostle of love, but he was also a ‘sonof thunder.’ His intense
moral earnestness andhis very love made him hate evil, and sternly condemn
it; and his words flash and roll as no other words in Scripture, except the
words of the Lord of love. In the immediate contexthe has been laying down
what is to him the very heart of his message, that‘God is light, and in Him is
no darkness at all.’ There are spots in the sun, great tracts of blackness onits
radiant disc; but in God is unmingled, perfect purity. That being so, it is clear
that no man can be in sympathy or hold communion with Him, unless he, too,
in his measure, is light.
So, with fiery indignation, John turns to the people, of whom there were some,
even in the primitive Church, who made claims to a lofty spirituality and
communion with God, and all the while were manifestly living in the darkness
of sin. He will not mince matters with them. He roundly says that they are
lying, and the worstsort of lie--an actedlie: ‘They do not the truth.’ Then,
with a quick turn, he opposes to these pretenders the men who really are in
fellowship with God, and in my text lays down the principle that walking in
the light is essentialto fellowship with God. Only, in his usual fashion, he
turns the antithesis into a somewhatdifferent form, so as to suggestanother
aspectof the truth, and instead of saying, as we might expect for the verbal
accuracyofthe contrast, ‘If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have
fellowship with God,’he says, ‘we have fellowship one with another.’ Then he
adds a still further result of that walk, ‘the blood of Jesus cleansesfrom all
sin.’

Now there are three things: walking in the light, which is the only Christian
walk;the companions of those who walk in the light; and the progressive
cleansing which is given.
I. Note this ‘Walking in the light,’ which is the only Christian walk.
In all languages,light is the natural symbol for three things: knowledge, joy,
purity. The one ray is broken into its three constituent parts. But just as there
are some surfaces whichare sensitive to the violet rays, say, of the spectrum,
and not to the others, so John’s intense moral earnestness makeshim mainly
sensitive to the symbolism which makes light the expression, not so much of
knowledge orof joy, as of moral purity. And although that is not exclusively
his use of the emblem, it is predominately so, and it is so here. To ‘walk in the
light’ then, is, speaking generally, to have purity, righteousness, goodness, as
the very element and atmosphere in which our progressive andchangeful life
is carried on.
Note, too, before I go further, that very significant antithesis:we ‘walk’;He
is--God is in the light essentially, changelessly, undisturbedly, eternally; and
the light in which He is, His ‘own calm home, His habitation from eternity,’ is
light which has flowed out from Himself as a halo round the midnight moon.
It is all one in substance to say God is in light, or, as the Psalmisthas it, ‘He
coveredHimself with light as with a garment,’ and to say, ‘God is light.’
But, side by side with that changelessabiding in the perfectpurity, which is
inaccessible, the Apostle ventures to put, not in contrastonly, but in parallel
{as He is}, our changing, effortful, active, progressive life in the light {God is};
we walk.

So, then, the essentialof a Christian characteris that the light of purity and
moral goodness shallbe as the very orb, in the midst of which it stands and
advances. Thatimplies effort, and it implies activity, and it implies progress.
And we are only Christians in the measure in which the consciousactivities of
our daily lives, and the deepestenergies ofour inward being, are bathed and
saturatedwith this love of, and effort after, righteousness. It is vain, says
John, to talk about fellowship with God, unless the fellowship is rooted in
sympathy with Him in that which is the very heart of his Being, the perfect
light of perfect holiness. Testyour Christianity by that.
Then, still further, there is implied in this greatrequirement of walking in the
light, not only activity and effort, and progress and purity, but also that the
whole of the life shall be brought into relation with, and shall be moulded
after, the pattern of the God in whom we profess to believe. Religion, in its
deepestmeaning, is the aspiration after likeness to the god. You see it in
heathenism. Men make their gods after their own image, and then the god
makes the worshippers after his image. Mars is the god of the soldier, and
Venus goddess of the profligate, and Apollo godof the musical and the wise,
etc., and in Christianity the deepestthing in it is aspiration and effort after
likeness to God. Love is imitation; admiration, especiallywhen it is raisedto
the highestdegree and becomes adoration, is imitation. And the man that lies
before God, like a mirror in the sunshine, receives onthe still surface of his
soul--but not, like the mirror, on the surface only, but down into its deepest
depths--the reflectedimage of Him on Whom he gazes. ‘We all with unveiled
face, mirroring glory, are changed into the same image.’So to walk in the
light is only possible when we are drawn into it, and our feeble feet made fit to
tread upon the radiant glory, by the thought that He is in the light. To imitate
Him is to be righteous. So do not let us forgetthat a correctcreed, and devout
emotions, ay! and a morality which has no connectionwith Him, are all
imperfect, and that the end of all our religion, our orthodox creedand our
sweetemotions and inward feelings of acceptanceand favour and fellowship,
are meant to converge on, and to produce this--a life and a characterwhich
lives and moves and has its being in a great orb of light and purity.

But another thing is included in this grand metaphor of my text. Not only does
it enjoin upon us effort and activity and progress in the light and the linking
of all our purity with God, but also, it bids us shroud no part of our conduct
or our charactereither from ourselves orfrom Him. Bring it all out into the
light. And although with a penitent heart, and a face suffused with blushes, we
have sometimes to say, ‘See, Father, what I have done!’ it is far better that the
revealing light should shine down upon us, and like the sunshine on wet linen,
melt awaythe foulness which it touches, than that we should huddle the ugly
thing up in a corner, to be one day revealedand transfixed by the flash of the
light turned into lightning. ‘He that doeth the truth cometh to the light, that
his deeds may be made manifest.’
II. So much, then, for my first point; the secondis: The companions of the
men that walk in the light.
I have already pointed out that the accurate, perhaps pedantically accurate,
form of the antithesis would have been: ‘If we walk in the light as He is in the
light, we have fellowship with God.’But John says, first, ‘we have fellowship
one with another.’Underlying that, as I shall have to say in a moment, there is
the other thought: ‘We have fellowshipwith God.’ But he deals with the other
side of the truth first. That just comes to this, that the only cement that
perfectly knits men to eachother is their common possessionof that light, and
the consequentfellowshipwith God. There are plenty of other bonds that
draw us to one another; but these, if they are not strengthened by this deepest
of all bonds, the affinity of souls, that are moving togetherin the realm of light
and purity, are precarious, and apt to snap. Sin separates menquite as much
as it separates eachman from God. It is the wedge driven into the tree that
rends it apart. Human societywith its various bonds is like the iron hoop that
may be put around the barrel staves, giving them a quasi-unity. The one thing
that builds men togetherinto a whole is that eachshall be, as it were,
embedded in the rock which is the foundation, and the building will rise into a

holy temple in the Lord. Sin separates;as the prophet confessed, ‘All we like
sheephave gone astray, every one to his own way,’ and the flock is broken up
into a multitude of scatteredsheep. Socialenthusiasts may learn the lesson
that the only way by which brotherhood among men canbecome anything else
than a name, and probably end, as it did in the greatFrench Revolution, in
‘brothers’ making the catacombs oftheir brethren under the guillotine, is that
it shall be the corollaryfrom the Fatherhoodof God. If we walk in the light,
not otherwise, we have ‘fellowship one with another.’
Then, still further, in this fellowship one with another, John presupposes the
fellowship with Godfor each, which makes the possibility and the certainty of
all being drawn into one family. He does not think it necessaryto state, what is
so plain and obvious, viz., that unless we are in sympathy with God, in our
aspiration and effort after the light which is His home and ours, we have no
real communion with Him. I said that sin separatedman from man, and
disrupted all the sweetbonds of amity, so that if men come into contact, being
themselves in the darkness, theycome into collisionrather than into
communion. A company of travellers in the night are isolatedindividuals.
When the sun rises on their paths they are a company again. And in like
manner, sin separates us from God, and if our hearts are turned towards, and
denizens of, the darkness ofimpurity, then we have no communion with Him.
He cannot come to us if we love the darkness. He
‘Can but listen at the gate,
And hear the household jar within.’
The tide of the Atlantic feels along the base of iron-bound cliffs on our
westernshores, and there is not a crevice into which it cancome. So God
moves about us, but is without us, so long as we walk in darkness. So letus

remember that no union with Him is possible, exceptthere be this common
dwelling in the light. Two grains of quicksilver laid upon a polished surface
will never unite if their surfaces be dusted over with minute impurities, or if
the surface of one of them be. Cleanawaythe motes, and they will coalesce
and be one. A film of sin separates menfrom God. And if the film be removed
the man dwells in God, and God in him.
III. That brings me to my last point: The progressive cleansing ofthose who
dwell in the light.
‘The blood of Jesus Christcleansethfrom all sin.’ Now if you will notice the
whole context, and eminently the words a couple of verses aftermy text, you
will see that the cleansing here meant is not the cleansing offorgiveness, but
the cleansing ofpurifying. For the two things are articulately distinguished in
the ninth verse:‘He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness.’So, to use theologicalterms, it is not justification,
but sanctificationthat is meant here.
Then there is another thing to be noticed, and that is that when the Apostle
speaks here about the blood of Christ, he is not thinking of that blood as shed
on the Cross, the atoning sacrifice, but of that blood as transfused into the
veins, the source there of our new life. The Old Testament says that ‘the blood
is the life.’ Nevermind about the statementbeing scientifically correct;it
conveys the idea of the time, which underlies a great deal of Old and New
Testamentteaching. And when John says the blood of Jesus cleansesfrom ‘all
sin,’ he says just the same thing as his brother Paul said, ‘the law of the spirit
of life in Jesus Christ makes me free from the law of sin and death.’ That is to
say, a growing cleansing from the dominion and the power of sin is granted to
us, if we have the life of Jesus Christ breathed into our lives. The metaphor is
a very strong one. They tell us--I know nothing about the truth of it--that
sometimes it has been possible to revive a moribund man by transfusing into

his veins blood from another. That is a picture of the only way by which you
and I canbecome free from the tyranny that dominates us. We must have the
life of Christ as the animating principle of our lives, the spirit of Jesus
emancipating us from the powerof sin and death.
So you see, there are two aspects ofChrist’s greatwork setbefore us under
that one metaphor of the blood in its two-fold form, first, as shed for us
sinners on the Cross;second, as poured into our veins day by day. That works
progressive cleansing.It covers the whole ground of all possible iniquity.
Pardon is much, purifying is more. The sacrifice onthe Cross is the basis of
everything, but that sacrifice does notexhaust what Christ does for us. He
died for our sins, and lives for our sanctifying. He died for us, He lives in us.
BecauseHe died, we are forgiven; because He lives, we are made pure. Only
remember John’s ‘if.’ The ‘blood of Jesus will progressivelycleanseus until it
has cleansedus from all sin,’ on condition that we ‘walk in the light,’ not
otherwise. If the main direction of our lives is towards the light; if we seek, by
aspiration and by effort, and by deliberate choice, to live in holiness, then, and
not else, will the power of the life of Jesus Christ deliver us from the powerof
sin and death.
Now, my text presupposes that the people to whom it is addressed, and whom
it concerns, have already passedfrom darkness into light, if not wholly, yet in
germ. But for those who have not so passed, there is something to be said
before my text. And John says it immediately; here it is, ‘If any man sin we
have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christthe righteous, and He is the
propitiation for our sins; and not for our sins only, but for the whole world.’
So we have to begin with the blood shed for us, the means of our pardon, and
then we have the advance of the blood sprinkled on us, the means of our
cleansing. If by humble faith we take the dying Lord for our Saviour, and the
channel of our forgiveness, we shallhave the pardon of our sins. If we listen to
the voice that says, ‘Ye were sometime darkness, but now are ye light in the
Lord. Walk as children of the light,’ we shall have fellowshipwith the living

Lord, and daily know more and more of the powerof His cleansing blood,
making us ‘meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light.’
Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary
1:5-10 A messagefrom the Lord Jesus, the Word of life, the eternal Word, we
should all gladly receive. The greatGod should be representedto this dark
world, as pure and perfect light. As this is the nature of God, his doctrines and
precepts must be such. And as his perfect happiness cannot be separatedfrom
his perfectholiness, so our happiness will be in proportion to our being made
holy. To walk in darkness, is to live and act againstreligion. God holds no
heavenly fellowship or intercourse with unholy souls. There is no truth in
their profession;their practice shows its folly and falsehood. The eternal Life,
the eternalSon, put on flesh and blood, and died to wash us from our sins in
his ownblood, and procures for us the sacredinfluences by which sin is to be
subdued more and more, till it is quite done away. While the necessityof a
holy walk is insisted upon, as the effectand evidence of the knowledge ofGod
in Christ Jesus, the opposite error of self-righteous pride is guarded against
with equal care. All who walk near to God, in holiness and righteousness, are
sensible that their best days and duties are mixed with sin. God has given
testimony to the sinfulness of the world, by providing a sufficient, effectual
Sacrifice for sin, needed in all ages;and the sinfulness of believers themselves
is shown, by requiring them continually to confess their sins, and to apply by
faith to the blood of that Sacrifice. Let us plead guilty before God, be humble,
and willing to know the worst of our case. Letus honestly confess allour sins
in their full extent, relying wholly on his mercy and truth through the
righteousness ofChrist, for a free and full forgiveness, andour deliverance
from the powerand practice of sin.
Barnes'Notes on the Bible
But if we walk in the light - Compare the notes at 1 John 1:5. Walking in the
light may include the three following things:
(1) Leading lives of holiness and purity; that is, the Christian must be
characteristicallya holy man, a light in the world, by his example.

(2) walking in the truth; that is, embracing the truth in opposition to all error
of paganism and infidelity, and having clear, spiritual views of truth, such as
the unrenewednever have. See 2 Corinthians 4:6; 1 Corinthians 2:9-15;
Ephesians 1:18.
(3) enjoying the comforts of religion; that is, having the joy which religion is
fitted to impart, and which it does impart to its true friends, Psalm 94:19;
Isaiah57:8; 2 Corinthians 1:3; 2 Corinthians 13:11. Compare the notes at
John 12:35.
As he is in the light - In the same kind of light that he has. The measure of
light which we may have is not the same in degree, but it is of the same kind.
The true Christian in his characterand feelings resembles God.
We have fellowshipone with another - As we all partake of his feelings and
views, we shall resemble eachother. Loving the same God, embracing the
same views of religion, and living for the same ends, we shall of course have
much that is common to us all, and thus shall have fellowshipwith eachother.
And the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleansethus from all sin - See the
sentiment here expressedfully explained in the notes at Hebrews 9:14. When
it is said that his blood cleansesus from all sin, the expressionmust mean one
of two things - either that it is through that blood that all past sin is forgiven,
or that that blood will ultimately purify us from all transgression, and make
us perfectly holy. The generalmeaning is plain, that in regardto any and
every sin of which we may be conscious,there is efficacyin that blood to
remove it, and to make us wholly pure. There is no stain made by sin so deep
that the blood of Christ cannot take it entirely awayfrom the soul. The
connectionhere, or the reasonwhy this is introduced here, seems to be this:
The apostle is stating the substance of the messagewhich he had received, 1
John 1:5. The first or leading part of it was, that Godis light, and in him is no
darkness, and that his religion requires that all his friends should resemble
him by their walking in the light. Another, and a material part of the same
messagewas, thatprovision was made in his religion for cleansing the soul
from sin, and making it like God. No systemof religionintended for man
could be adapted to his condition which did not contain this provision, and

this did contain it in the most full and ample manner. Of course, however, it is
meant that that blood cleanses fromall sin only on the conditions on which its
efficacycan be made available to man - by repentance for the past, and by a
cordial receptionof the Saviour through faith.
Jamieson-Fausset-BrownBible Commentary
7. Compare Eph 5:8, 11-14. "We walk";"Godis (essentiallyin His very
nature as 'the light,' 1Jo 1:5) in the light." Walking in the light, the element in
which God Himself is, constitutes the test of fellowship with Him. Christ, like
us, walkedin the light (1Jo 2:6). Alford notices, Walking in the light as He is
in the light, is no mere imitation of God, but an identity in the essential
element of our daily walk with the essentialelementof God's eternal being.
we have fellowship one with another—andof course with God (to be
understood from 1Jo 1:6). Without having fellowship with God there canbe
no true and Christian fellowship one with another (compare 1Jo 1:3).
and—as the result of "walking in the light, as He is in the light."
the blood of Jesus … cleansethus from all sin—daily contractedthrough the
sinful weaknessofthe flesh, and the powerof Satan and the world. He is
speaking not of justification through His blood once for all, but of the present
sanctification("cleanseth" is present tense)which the believer, walking in the
light and having fellowship with God and the saints, enjoys as His privilege.
Compare Joh 13:10, Greek, "He that has been bathed, needeth not save to
washhis feet, but is cleanevery whit." Compare 1Jo 1:9, "cleanse us from all
unrighteousness," a further step besides "forgiving us our sins." Christ's
blood is the cleansing mean, whereby gradually, being already justified and in
fellowship with God, we become cleanfrom all sin which would mar our
fellowship with God. Faith applies the cleansing, purifying blood. Some oldest
manuscripts omit "Christ"; others retain it.
Matthew Poole's Commentary
But if we walk; which is a continued and progressive motion, i.e. do persevere
and improve in holiness.

In the light; being transformed into the holy image and likeness ofGod, and
showing themselves the children of light, as he is light, and the Father of
lights. We have fellowshipone with another; have fellowship with him, met
autou, as one copy reads:however, we must comprehend God, and this the
contexture of discourse shows.
And the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleansethus from all sin; kayarizeilest
our purity and holiness should be thought to have deservedsuch a privilege, it
is cautiously added,
and the blood, & c. is that which alone expiates, or makes atonementfor our
sins (the proper notion of cleansing here). Our former sinfulness and present
imperfect holiness render it impossible God should admit us to communion
with him for our own sakes, orwithout such an intervening sacrifice;
kayarmata usually signifying expiations. And if we further extend the notion
of cleansing, so as to comprehend internal subjective purification, (which also
the word may admit), the further meaning is, that even that purifying
influence, whereby we are qualified for present holy walking with God, and
for final blessednessin him, we owe to the merit and procurement of the
Redeemer’s blood.
Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible
But if we walk in the light,.... Are persons enlightened by the Spirit of God, so
as to have a true sight and sense of sin, to know Christ, and the way of
salvationby him; and are children of the light, and are going on and
increasing in spiritual light and knowledge;walk on in Christ, the light, by
faith, and in the light and truth of the Gospel, and as becomes it, and as
children of light; and as such who are calledout of darkness into marvellous
light:

as he is in the light; according to the light which he has given, who is light
itself, is in it, and dwells in it. This "as" denotes not equality, but likeness:
when this is the case,then it is a clearpoint, that
we have fellowship one with another; not with the saints, with the apostles,
and other Christians, but with God: "we have mutual communion", as the
Arabic versionrenders it; Godwith us, and we with him. Some copies read,
"with him", as in 1 John 1:6; and such a reading the sense requires;and
agreeablyto this the Ethiopic version renders it, "and we are partakers
among ourselves with him"; that is, we all jointly and mutually appear to be
like him, and partake of his nature, and have communion with him; and not
only so, but with his Son Jesus Christ, as appears from our having a share in
the cleansing efficacyofhis blood:
and the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleansethus from all sin: there is a
pollution on human nature, which is original, natural, universal, and internal,
and is such that nothing canremove but the blood of Christ; not ceremonial
ablutions and sacrifices,nor moral duties, nor evangelicalperformances,or
submission to Gospelordinances, and particularly baptism, which is not the
putting awaythe faith of the flesh; nor even the graces ofthe Spirit, no, not
faith, no otherwise than as it has to do with this blood; for this cleansing is not
to be understood of sanctification, forthat more properly belongs to the Spirit
of God, and besides, does not cleanse fromall sin; for notwithstanding this, sin
is in the saints:but either of the atonement of sin, by the sacrifice of Christ,
and so of a complete justification from it by his blood, which is put for both
his active and passive obedience, the one being finished in the other; or rather
of the pardon of sin, procured by the blood of Christ, and the application of
that blood to the conscience, whichpurges it from dead works, andwhich has
a continued virtue in it for that purpose. Christ's blood, being applied by the
Spirit of God, has been always cleansing from sin; it had this virtue in it, and
was of this use, even before it was actuallyshed, to the Old Testamentsaints;
whence Christ is said to be the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world;
and it has the same efficacynow as when first shed, and will have to the end of
the world; and being sprinkled upon the conscience, by the Spirit of God, it
takes awaythe sins of believers, and cleansesfrom them, as fastas the
corruption of nature rises, or sins appear; and removes them out of their

sight, and speakspeace to their souls;and which is owing, as to the dignity of
Christ's person and the value of his sacrifice, so to his continual intercession,
advocacy, and mediation; and which reaches to all sin, original and actual,
secretand open sins; sins of heart, thought, lip, and life; sins of omission and
commission, greateror lessersins, committed againstlight and knowledge,
grace and mercy, law and Gospel, allbut the sin againstthe Holy Ghost; and
in this Christ was the antitype of the scape goat, ofwhich the Jews say(g),
that
"it atoned for all the transgressions ofthe law, whether small or great, sins of
presumption, or of ignorance, known, ornot known, which were againstan
affirmative or negative command, which deservedcutting off (by the hand of
God), or death by the sanhedrim.''
The Arabic and Ethiopic versions render it, "from all our sins"; and this must
be ascribedto the greatness ofhis person, as the Son of God; wherefore the
emphasis lies on these words, "his Son": the Son of God, who is equal with
God, and is truly and properly God: as it must be the blood of man that must,
according to the law, be shed, to atone for and expiate sin, and cleanse from it,
and that of an innocent man, who is holy, harmless, and without sin; so it
must not be the blood of a mere man, though everso holy, but the blood of one
that is God as well as man; see Acts 20:28. The divine nature of the Son of
God, being in union with the human nature, put virtue into his blood to
produce such an effect, which still continues, and will, as long as there is any
occlusionfor it.
(g) Misn. Shebuot, c. 1. sect. 6.
Geneva Study Bible
But if we walk in the {d} light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with
another, {4} and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleansethus from all sin.
(d) God is saidto be light by his own nature, and to be in light, that is to say,
in that everlasting infinite blessedness:and we are saidto walk in light in that
the beams of that light shine to us in the Word.

(4) A digressionthe matter at hand, to the remission of sins: for this our
sanctificationwho walk in the light, is a testimony of our joining and knitting
togetherwith Christ: but because this our light is very dark, we must obtain
another benefit in Christ, that is, that our sins may be forgiven us being
sprinkled with his blood: and this in conclusionis the support and anchor of
our salvation.
EXEGETICAL(ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)
Meyer's NT Commentary
1 John 1:7. This verse does not merely repeatin its antithetical form the
preceding thought, but contains also—asis peculiar to John’s lively fertility of
ideas—anexpansionof it.
ἐὰν δὲ ἐν τῷ φωτὶ περιπατῶμεν] is contrastednot only with the preceding
(ἐὰν) ἐν τῷ σκότει περιπατῶμεν, but also with ἐὰν εἴπωμεν, ὅτι κοιν. ἐχ. μετʼ
αὐτοῦ (so also Ebrard), thus: “if we do not merely say that we have fellowship
with God, and yet at the same time walk in darkness, but if we really walk ἐν
τῷ φωτί.”
ἐν τῷ φωτὶ περιπατεῖν is not “to strive after likeness to God” (Lücke), but so
to walk that the light (by which, however, we are not, with Weiss, to
understand only knowledge)is the elementin which our light moves;this,
however, is a life which does not consistin striving after likeness to God, but
which has this already as its own, or which is an ἔχειν κοινωνίανμετʼ αὐτοῦ
with Him who is light. This unity betweenwalking in the light and fellowship
with God is even more clearly brought out by the following words:ὡς αὐτός
ἐστιν ἐν τῷ φωτί] ὡς, because it is the same element in which the true
Christian walks and in which God “lives and works” (Düsterdieck,Brückner),
inasmuch as the Christian has become θείας κοινωνὸς φύσεως (2 Peter1:4).

αὐτός refers back to αὐτοῦ, 1 John 1:6, and is put for Θεός. The idea “that
God is in the light” is the same as this “that God is light;” that which is the
nature of God is also the element of His life; the expressionused here is
occasionedby the preceding ἐν τῷ φωτὶ περιπατεῖν; Ebrard incorrectly
explains: “God has chosenfor His habitation the spheres of the sinless, holy,
and pure life of the angels and those made perfect;” there is not the slightest
hint at such a conceptionin the context. As Weiss denies to the expressionφῶς
an ethical reference, and explains ἐν τῷ φωτὶ περιπατεῖν = “to walk in a state
of right knowledge,”the clause ὡς αὐτός ἐστιν ἐν τῷ φωτί necessarilycauses
him a difficulty, which he canonly solve by the supposition “that an idea
similar to that in 1 Timothy 6:16 was before the apostle’s mind, and that he
institutes a parallel betweenthe walk of the Christian in the light of true
knowledge, andthe dwelling of God in the brightness of His glory,” in which it
is plainly ignored that the secondἐν τῷ φωτί must necessarilyhave the same
meaning as the first ἐν τῷ φωτί.
ἐστι is contrastedwith περιπατῶμεν; the former is peculiar to God, the latter
to men; the former (being) to Him who is eternal, the latter (walking)to him
who is temporal.
κοινωνίανἔχομεν μετʼ ἀλλήλων] Severalcommentators wrongly deviate from
the statementof the apostle, by interpreting as if “μετʼαὐτοῦ” were used
instead of μετʼ ἀλλήλων, as indeed the reading of some is (see the critical
notes); or by understanding—quite unsuitably
ἀλλήλων of God and men; so Calvin: quod dicit, societatemessenobis
mutuam, non simpliciter ad homines refertur, sed Deum in una parte, nos
autem in altera;the same interpretation in Augustin, Beza, Socinus, Hornejus,
Lange, Spener, Russmeyer, Ewald, etc. De Wette, it is true, interprets
ἀλλήλων correctly, but supplies “μετὰ τοῦ Θεοῦ,” thus: “we have fellowship
one with another, namely with God;” againstthis explanation are: first, that

then John would not have mentioned the very leading thought; and, secondly,
that a tautologicalidea results from it (Lücke), for a περιπατεῖν ἐν τῷ φωτί is
only possible through the κοινωνία μετὰ τοῦ Θεοῦ, nay, even is the necessary
proof of it. The subject here is much rather the fellowship of Christians with
one another (Bede, Lyranus, Grotius, Wolf, Bengel, Semler, Lücke,
Baumgarten-Crusius, Neander, Sander, Düsterdieck, Ebrard, Braune,
Brückner, etc.), and indeed quite generally, not, as Bengelconsiders, so that
the apostle and his readers (nos et vos) would be regardedas the two parts
bound together. The brotherly fellowship of Christians with one another ἐν
ἀγάπῃ presupposes therefore the walking in light, or in fellowshipwith God,
of which it is the necessaryconsequence.
With such a walk a secondelement is, however, united, namely: καὶ τὸ αἷμα
Ἰησοῦ τοῦ υἱοῦ αὐτοῦ καθαρίζειἡμᾶς ἀπὸ πάσης ἁμαρτίας.
τὸ αἶμα Ἰησοῦ]is not a metonymical expressionfor “the considerationof His
death” (Socinus, Episcopius, Grotius, etc.),[55]but: the blood which Jesus
(thus spokenof here as incarnate) shed as an offering at His death; or: the
bloody sacrificialdeathof the Lord (Düsterdieck, Ebrard, Braune).[56]
ΤΟῦ ΥἹΟῦ ΑὐΤΟῦ] is “not merely added as a name of honour,” but also not
“to indicate the close connectionbetweenthe cause of God and Christ,” as
Baumgarten-Crusius says, but in order to bring out the identity of the
crucified One with the Sonof God (so also the incarnation of the Son of God);
compare chap. 1 John 5:6; at the same time, however, there lies in it an
indication how the blood of Jesus canhave the effectwhich the apostle
attributes to it (so also Ebrard).
ΚΑΘΑΡΊΖΕΙ ἩΜᾶς ἈΠῸ ΠΆΣΗς ἉΜΑΡΤΊΑς]may mean either the
cleansing from guilt, i.e. the forgiveness ofsins (Bede, Socinus, a Lapide,

Calov, Lange, Baumgarten-Crusius, Erdmann, Weiss, etc.), orcleansing from
sin itself, its eradication(Lücke, Frommann, “Düsterdieck, Ebrard, Myrberg,
Braune, Ewald, etc.), or, finally, both together(Spener, Hornejus, Bengel, de
Wette, Brückner). According to 1 John 1:9, where ἀφιέναι τὰς ἁμαρτίας and
ΚΑΘΑΡΊΖΕΙΝ ἈΠῸ ΠΆΣΗς ἈΔΙΚΊΑς are placed togetherand thus
distinguished from one another, the secondview must be regarded as the
correctone,[57]as indeed the contextalso demands; for, as the factthat even
the believerhas still continually sin is in oppositionto the exhortation to
περιπατεῖν ἐν τῷ φωτί, the apostle had to point out that sin is ever
disappearing more and more, and how, so that the walk which is troubled by
it may still be consideredas a walk in light, and that in spite of sin there may
exist a fellowship with God, who is light. As ΠΕΡΙΠΑΤΕῖΝ ἘΝ Τῷ ΦΩΤΊ is
given as the condition (not as the means, which the blood of Christ is) of
ΚΑΘΑΡΊΖΕΣΘΑΙ, and as the subjecthere therefore is not the change,
wrought by the blood of Christ, of man from a child of darkness into a child of
light, but the growing transformation of him who has alreadybecome a child
of light, the present καθαρίζει is not to be turned into the preterite, but is to be
retained as the present; Spener: “He purifies us ever more and more until the
final perfect purity.” Comp. Gospelof John 15:2.[58]
ἀπὸ πάσης ἉΜΑΡΤΊΑς, “from every sin;” sins are regardedas the single
dark spots which still continually trouble the Christian’s walk in light. The
καί which connects the two parts of the subordinate clause is explained by
Oecumenius, Theophylact, Beza, Lange, Semler, etc. = nam. Sander
recognisesthe grammaticalincorrectness ofthis interpretation, but is of
opinion that the secondclause is to be takenas causal, as the basis and
condition of the first; but even this is arbitrary. According to de Wette, “καί
connects directly with the idea of fellowshipthe progressive and highest
perfection of it;” but this view is founded on the incorrectassumption that the
subject of the first clause is fellowship with God. Ebrard thinks that John in
these two clauses togetherexpressesthe idea of ΚΟΙΝΩΝΊΑwith God, while
he “analyzes it forthwith into its two elements: the fellowship of believers with
one another, and the fellowshipand participation in the divine vital power;”
but it is in the first place incorrectto describe the ΚΟΙΝΩΝΊΑΜΕΤʼ

ἈΛΛΉΛΩΝ as anclement of the κοινωνία μετὰ τοῦ Θεοῦ, and in the second
place the purifying efficacyof the blood of Jesus canmuch less be regarded as
an element of it; besides, Ebrard has clearlybeen induced to add the word
“participation,” through the perception that the idea of fellowshipis quite
unsuitable to the secondclause. While the ΚΟΙΝΩΝΊΑΜΕΤᾺ ΤΟῦ ΘΕΟῦ is
manifestly presupposedbefore the ΠΕΡΙΠΑΤΕῖΝ ἘΝ Τῷ ΦΩΤΊ, these two
clauses express rather the “double fruit of our walk in light, of our living
fellowship with God, who is light” (Düsterdieck);but when John puts
ΚΟΙΝΩΝΊΑΜΕΤʼ ἈΛΛΉΛΩΝ first, he thereby indicates that it is the sphere
within which the purifying powerof the blood of Christ operates on each
individual (Brückner, Braune). Besides,it may be observed that the second
clause is intended to point out the progressive growthof Christian life, and
cannot therefore suitably precede the first clause.
[55] That the operation of the blood of Jesus on us is to be regardedas
conditioned by faith is evident; but there is no justification in this for
paraphrasing τὸ αἶμα by “faith in the blood.”
[56] It is unjustifiable for Myrberg to say: quum hic sanguis nominatur, de
toto opere Christi Mediatoris, immo de toto Christo Deum nobis et nos Deo
reconciliante ac opus divinum in nobis operante cogitare debemus.
[57] Against Erdmann’s assertion:“Quum notio αἴματος J. Christi in s.
seriptis aeque ac mors ejus semper vim expiandi habeat atque idem quod
ἱλασμός signifleet(1 John 2:2), etiam h. l. expiatio ab apostolo designatur, qua
sola fieri potest, ut peccata nobis condonentur,” it is to be observedthat in
scripture the vis expiandi only is by no means ascribed to the blood of Christ;
comp. 1 Peter1:18. In opposition to the assertionof Weiss, that “we cannot
imagine how the blood of Christ should effecta deliverance from sin,” it may
be stated that a forgiveness ofsin which produces no deliverance from sin, is
no true forgiveness;comp. Titus 2:14. Forgivenessis here to be associated

with the thought only in so far as it is the necessarypresuppositionof that
deliverance.
[58] In what this purifying efficacyof the αἶμα Ἰησοῦ is founded, John does
not here say;but from the factthat in ver. 9 the ἀφιέναι τὰς ἁμαρτίας is put
before the καθαρίζειν, and Christ in chap. 1 John 2:2 is describedas ἱλασμός,
it follows, that according to John the purifying power is associatedwith the
blood of Christ in so far as it is the blood of atonement. Ebrard improperly
separates the two elements from one another, ascribing to the death of Christ
“the powerof purifying our hearts from sin, because in Christ’s death sin is
condemned;” and, on the other hand, “the powerof making atonement and
obtaining forgiveness, becausein Christ’s death the debt was paid and mercy
procured.”—WhenFrommann says:“The powerthat purifies from sin does
not exactlylie in the blood of Christ itself, but in the love of God, of which
Christ in His bloody death is the most speaking token, and of the existence of
which He supplies the most unquestionable evidence,” this is clearlyan
inadmissible twisting of the apostle’s words.
Cambridge Bible for Schools andColleges
7. A further inference from the first principle laid down in 1 John 1:5 :
walking in the light involves not only fellowship with God but fellowship with
the brethren. This verse takes the opposite hypothesis to that just considered
and expands it. We often find (comp. 1 John 1:9) that S. John while seeming
to go back or repeat, really progressesand gives us something fresh. It would
have enforced1 John 1:6, but it would have told us nothing fresh, to say‘if we
walk in the light, and say that we have fellowship with Him, we speak the
truth, and do not lie’. And it is interesting to find that the craving to make this
verse the exactantithesis of the preceding one has generatedanotherreading,
‘we have fellowshipwith Him’, instead of ‘with one another’. This reading is
as old as the secondcentury, for Tertullian (De Pud. XIX.) quotes, ‘si vero’,
inquit, ‘in lumine incedamus, communionem cum eo habebimus, et sanguis
&c.’Clement of Alexandria also seems to have known of this reading. This is
evidence of the early date of our Epistle; for by the end of the secondcentury

important differences of reading had already arisen and become widely
diffused.
as He is in the light] We walk, Godis: we move through space and time; He is
in eternity. Of Him who is everywhere, and knows no change, we can only say,
‘He is’. Comp. the similar thought of S. Paul; ‘Who only hath immortality,
dwelling in light unapproachable’ (1 Timothy 6:16). That which is light must
ever be in light. We then must make our spiritual atmosphere similar to His,
that our thoughts and conductmay reflect Him.
fellowship one with another] This certainly refers to the mutual fellowship of
Christians among themselves, as is clearfrom 1 John 3:23, 1 John 4:7; 1 John
4:12; 2 John 1:5. It does not refer to fellowship betweenGod and man, as S.
Augustine and others, desiring to make this verse parallel to 1 John 1:6, have
interpreted. S. John would scarcelyexpress the relation betweenGod and
man by such a phrase as ‘we have fellowship with one another’ (μετ'
ἀλλήλων). Contrast ‘I ascendunto My Fatherand your Father, and My God
and your God’ (John 20:17). In that ‘thick darkness’, whichprevailed ‘in all
the land of Egypt three days, they saw not one another, neither rose any from
his place for three days’ (Exodus 10:22-23):i.e. there was an absolute
cessationoffellowship. Societycould not continue in the dark: but when the
light returned, societywas restored. So also in the spiritual world: when the
light comes, individuals have that communion one with anotherwhich in
darkness is impossible. In a similar spirit Cicero declares thatreal friendship
is impossible without virtue (De Amic. vi. 20).
and the blood of Jesus Christ] Omit ‘Christ’ with all the oldestauthorities: so
also Wiclif and Tyndale’s first edition. The ‘and’ shews that this is a further
consequence ofwalking in the light. “Forthis is the virtue of the Lord’s blood,
that such as it has already purified from sin, and thenceforwardhas set in the
light, it renders thenceforwardpure, if they continue steadfastlywalking in

the light” (Tertull. De Mod. XIX.). One who walks in spiritual darkness
cannot appropriate that cleansing from sin, which is wrought by the blood of
Jesus, shedon the cross as a propitiation for sin.
His Son] Notredundant: (1) it is a passing contradictionof Cerinthus, who
taught that Jesus was a mere man when His blood was shed, for the Divine
element in His nature left Him when He was arrestedin the garden; and of the
Ebionites, who taught that He was a mere man from His birth to His death;
(2) it explains how this blood can have such virtue: it is the blood of One who
is the Sonof God.
cleanseth]Note the present tense of what goes on continually; that constant
cleansing which even the holiest Christians need (see on John 13:10). One who
lives in the light knows his own frailty and is continually availing himself of
the purifying powerof Christ’s sacrificialdeath. “This passage shewsthatthe
gratuitous pardon of sins is given us not once only, but that it is a benefit
perpetually residing in the Church, and daily offered to the faithful” (Calvin).
Note also the ‘all’; there is no limit to its cleansing power:even grievous
sinners canbe restoredto the likeness ofGod, in whom is no darkness atall.
This refutes by anticipation the error of the Novatians, who denied pardon to
mortal sins after baptism. Comp. ‘How much more shall the blood of Christ
… cleanse your conscience’(Hebrews 9:14), and ‘These are they which come
out of the great tribulation, and they washedtheir robes and made them white
in the blood of the Lamb’ (Revelation7:14).
Bengel's Gnomen
1 John 1:7. Ὡς, as) Imitation of God is the testof fellowshipwith Him.—
αὐτὸς, He Himself) God. So the Hebrews often say, ‫,אוה‬ He, that is, God. So
αὐτὸς, 1Ma 3:22.—ἔστιν, is)This word is more inward, and more worthy of
God, than to walk.—κοινωνίανἔχομεν, we have fellowship) that is, Then we
truly say, that we have fellowship:for walking in the light certainly and
immediately follows this.—μετ ̓ ἀλλήλων) mutual, betweenus and you: 1 John

1:3 : for ἀλλήλων, reciprocally, does not appear an appropriate expression
respecting God and men: comp. John 20:17. It is howeveran abbreviated
expression:in 1 John 1:6, with Him, understand from 1 John 1:7, and among
ourselves [and one with another]: in 1 John 1:7, among us [one with another],
understand from 1 John 1:6, with Him. Comp. John 14:10, note.—καὶ τὸ
αἷμα, and the blood) Fellowshipwith the Son of God is described. Respecting
the blood, comp. ch. 1 John 5:6; John 6:53-56; Revelation1:5.—καθαρίζει
ἡμᾶς, cleansethus) by remission and taking away:comp. 1 John 1:9.—πάσης,
all) original and actual.
Pulpit Commentary
Verse 7. - The contrary hypothesis is now stated, and the thought is carried a
stage further (cf. verse 9). He again speaks conditionallyἐάν, and does so until
1 John 2:3; after which the participial substantive ὁ λέγων ὀ ἀαπῶν ὁ μισῶν
represents the conditional clause. The change of verbs is significant: we walk,
God is, in the light. We move through time; he is in eternity. Our activity
involves change;his does not. Like the sun, he both is Light and dwells in the
light; and if we walk in the light, which is his atmosphere, we have fellowship
one with another. Darkness is an unsocialcondition, and this the light expels.
From verse 6 we might have expected, "we have fellowship with him;" and
some inferior authorities read μετ αὐτοῦ. ButSt. John's repetitions are not
mere repetitions: the thought is always recur or resetto carry us a step
further (cf. verses 3, 4). Having fellowshipwith one another is a sure result of
that fellowshipwith God which is involved in walking in the light. "Here is a
reply to those who would restrain Catholic communion to their own sect"
(Wordsworth). Another result of walking in the light is that the blood of Jesus
(his sacrificialdeath) cleansesus day by day continually (present tense)from
our frequent sins of frailty. This cleansing is not the same as forgiveness of
sins (verse 9). The latter is the case ofὁ λελουμένος, the man that is bathed
(John 13:10); the former is the frequent washing of the feet (cf. Revelation
7:14; Revelation22:14). The expression, the blood of Jesus, in Christian
theology, "is dogma with pathos.... It implies, as no other word could do, the
reality

(1) of the human body of Jesus,
(2) of his sufferings,
(3) of his sacrifice."
By his blood new life-blood is infused into human nature.
Vincent's Word Studies
We walk in the light (ἐν τῷ φωτὶ περιπατῶμεν)
The phrase occurs only in the First Epistle. Walk, as above. In the light,
having our life in God, who is light.
He is in the light
God is forever and unchangeable in perfect light. Compare Psalm 104:2;1
Timothy 6:16. We walk, advancing in the light and by means of the light to
more light. "The path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and
more unto the perfectday" (Proverbs 4:18).
One with another (μετ' ἀλλήλων)
Not, we with God and God with us, but with our brethren. Fellowshipwith
God exhibits and proves itself by fellowshipwith Christians. See 1 John 4:7, 1
John 4:12; 1 John 3:11, 1 John 3:23.
Of Jesus Christ His Son
Omit Christ. The human name, Jesus, showsthat His blood is available for
man. The divine name, His Son, shows that it is efficacious. I shall be
rendering a service to students of John's Epistles by giving, in a condensed
form, CanonWestcott's note, classifying the severalnames of our Lord and
their uses in the Epistles.

The name in John, as in the Bible elsewhere, has two distinct, but closely
connectedmeanings.
1. The Revelationof the Divine Being by a specialtitle.
2. The whole sum of the manifold revelations gatheredup so as to form one
supreme revelation.
The latter sense is illustrated in 3 John 1:7, where "the name" absolutely
includes the essentialelements ofthe Christian creed, the complete revelation
of Christ's work in relation to God and man. Compare John 20:31;Acts 5:41.
In 1 John 2:12, the term is more limited, referring to Christ as He lived on
earth and gave Himself for "the brethren." In 1 John 3:23; 1 John 5:13, the
exactsense is defined by what follows.
Actual Names Used.
PRECEPTAUSTIN RESOURCES
BRUCE HURT MD
1 John 1:7 but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have
fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Soncleanses us from
all sin. (NASB:Lockman)
Greek:eande en to photi peripatomen (1PPAS)os autos estin (3SPAI) en to
photi, koinonianechomen (1PPAI) met' allelonkai to aima Iesoutou huiou
autou katharizei (3SPAI) hemas apo pases hamartias.
Amplified: But if we [really] are living and walking in the Light, as He
[Himself] is in the Light, we have [true, unbroken] fellowship with one
another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses(removes)us from all

sin and guilt [keeps us cleansedfrom sin in all its forms and manifestations].
(Amplified Bible - Lockman)
ESV: But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowshipwith
one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleansesus from all sin.
(ESVBible.org)
KJV: But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowshipone
with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Soncleansethus from all sin.
NLT: But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have
fellowship with eachother, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleansesus from
all sin. (NLT - Tyndale House)
Phillips: But if we really are living in the same light in which he eternally
exists, then we have true fellowship with eachother, and the blood which his
Son shed for us keeps us cleanfrom all sin. (Phillips: Touchstone)
Wuest: But if within the sphere of the light we are habitually ordering our
behavior as He himself is in the light, things in common and thus fellowship
we [the believer and God] are having with one another, and the blood of Jesus
His Sonkeeps continually cleansing us from every sin.
Young's Literal: and if in the light we may walk, as He is in the light -- we
have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus ChristHis Son doth
cleanse us from every sin
BUT IF WE WALK IN THE LIGHT AS HE HIMSELF IS IN THE LIGHT,
WE HAVE FELLOWSHIP WITH ONE ANOTHER, AND THE BLOOD OF
JESUS HIS SON CLEANSES US FROM ALL SIN: ean de en to photi
peripatomen (1PPAS)os autos estin (3SPAI) en to photi, koinonian echomen
(1PPAI) met' allelon kaito aima Iesou tou huiou autou katharizei (3SPAI)
hemas apo pases hamartias:
If we: 1Jn 2:9,10 Ps 56:13 89:15 97:11 Isa 2:5 Jn 12:35 Ro 13:12 Eph 5:8 2Jn
1:4 3Jn1:4
as:1Jn 1:5 Ps 104:2 1Ti 6:16 Jas 1:17

we have: 1Jn1:3 Am 3:3
and the: 1Jn2:1,2 5:6,8 Zec 13:1 Jn 1:29 1Co 6:11 Eph 1:7 Heb 9:14 1Pe 1:19
Rev 1:5 7:14
1 John 1 Resources - Multiple Sermons and Commentaries
Walk in the light: so shalt thou know
That fellowship of love
His Spirit only can bestow
Who reigns in light above.
--Bernard Barton
Walk in the light:
Plummer - A further inference from the first principle laid down in v. 5:
walking in the light involves not only fellowship with God but fellowship with
the brethren. This verse takes the opposite hypothesis to that just considered
and expands it. We often find (comp. v. 9) that S. John while seeming to go
back or repeat, really progressesandgives us something fresh. It would have
enforcedv. 6, but it would have told us nothing fresh, to say‘if we walk in the
light, and say that we have fellowship with Him, we speak the truth, and do
not lie’. And it is interesting to find that the craving to make this verse the
exactantithesis of the preceding one has generatedanother reading, ‘we have
fellowship with Him’, instead of ‘with one another’.
As He Himself is in the light - Referring to God.
Plummer - We then must make our spiritual atmosphere similar to His, that
our thoughts and conduct may reflectHim.
Ironside said…
It is where we walk—nothow. All real Christians walk in the Light.
Warren Wiersbe…

If we are the children of God, then we ought to imitate our Father. This is the
basis for the three admonitions in this section. Godis love (1 John 4:8);
therefore, “walk in love” (Eph. 5:1–2). God is light (1 John 1:5); therefore,
walk as children of light (Eph. 5:3–14). God is truth (1 John 5:6); therefore,
walk in wisdom (Eph. 5:15–17). Ofcourse, eachof these “walks”is a part of
Paul’s exhortation to “walk in purity.”
Toonwrites that in this passage
the basic meaning of "fellowship" is a realand practicalsharing in eternal life
with the Fatherand the Son. (Fellowshipin Baker's EvangelicalDictionaryof
Biblical Theology)
John Piper explains what it means practically to walk in the light…
Walking in the light is the opposite of walking in darkness. It means seeing
reality for what it is and being controlled by desires that accordwith God's
light. If God is light, and in him is no darkness atall, then he is the bright
pathway to the fulfillment of all our deepestlongings. He is the deliverer from
all dark dangers and obstacles to joy. He is the infinitely desirable One. If in
His own light He shines forth as a Being of infinite worth, then He is the star
of glory that we were made to admire and cherish. If God opens the eyes of
our hearts to see all that, then our desires are captured by the surpassing
glory of God over every thing that the world has to offer, and we walk in the
light as He is in the light. There is a walk, there is a lifestyle, that necessarily
results from the miracle of new birth when we are given eyes to see the
surpassing worth of the light of God. First John is written to describe what
that lifestyle looks like and how it results from the God's light and our new
birth. (1 John 1:5-10: Let Us Walk in the Light of God)
Fellowshipwith one another - One another refers to other believers but
clearly also includes God because genuine fellowship with other believers is
not possible unless both parties have first experiencedfellowshipwith God.
John is teaching that walking in the light is the condition of fellowship not
only with God but also with other believers.
Plummer…

fellowship one with another] This certainly refers to the mutual fellowship of
Christians among themselves, as is clearfrom 1Jn 3:23, 4:7, 12;2 John 5. It
does not refer to fellowshipbetweenGod and man, as S. Augustine and
others, desiring to make this verse parallel to v. 6, have interpreted…
In that ‘thick darkness’, whichprevailed ‘in all the land of Egypt three days,
they saw not one another, neither rose any from his place for three days’ (Ex.
10:22, 23): i.e. there was an absolute cessationoffellowship. Societycould not
continue in the dark: but when the light returned, society was restored. So
also in the spiritual world: when the light comes, individuals have that
communion one with another which in darkness is impossible. In a similar
spirit Cicero declares that realfriendship is impossible without virtue (De
Amic. vi. 20).
And the blood of Jesus His Son cleansesus from all unrighteousness -
Plummer…
The ‘and’ shews that this is a further consequenceofwalking in the light.
“Forthis is the virtue of the Lord’s blood, that such as it has already purified
from sin, and thenceforwardhas setin the light, it renders thenceforward
pure, if they continue steadfastlywalking in the light” (Tertull. De Mod.
XIX.). One who walks in spiritual darkness cannotappropriate that cleansing
from sin, which is wrought by the blood of Jesus, shedon the cross as a
propitiation for sin.
(His Son) Not redundant: (1) it is a passing contradiction of Cerinthus, who
taught that Jesus was a mere man when His blood was shed, for the Divine
element in His nature left Him when He was arrestedin the garden; and of the
Ebionites, who taught that He was a mere man from His birth to His death;
(2) it explains how this blood can have such virtue: it is the blood of One who
is the Sonof God.
Cleanses -
There is power, power, wonder–working power
In the precious blood of the Lamb.

His blood can make the foulest clean,
His blood availed for me.
—Charles Wesley
Plummer…
Note the presenttense of what goes oncontinually; that constantcleansing
which even the holiestChristians need (see on John 13:10). One who lives in
the light knows his ownfrailty and is continually availing himself of the
purifying power of Christ’s sacrificialdeath. “This passageshewsthat the
gratuitous pardon of sins is given us not once only, but that it is a benefit
perpetually residing in the Church, and daily offered to the faithful” (Calvin).
Note also the ‘all’; there is no limit to its cleansing power:even grievous
sinners canbe restoredto the likeness ofGod, in whom is no darkness atall.
This refutes by anticipation the error of the Novatians, who denied pardon to
mortal sins after baptism. Comp. ‘How much more shall the blood of Christ
… cleanse your conscience’(Heb. 9:14), and ‘These are they which come out
of the greattribulation, and they washedtheir robes and made them white in
the blood of the Lamb’ (Rev. 7:14).
Light produces life and growth and beauty, but sin is darkness and produces
death and corruption (Ro 3:63, Gal 6:8). Clearly, darkness and light cannot
exist in the same place. I t follows that if we are walking in the light, the
darkness has to go. If we are holding to sin, then the light goes. There is no
middle ground, no vague “gray” area, where sin is concerned.
O God of Light
--Arthur S Booth-Clibborn
O God of light, O God of love,
Shine on my soul from Heaven above!
Let sin appear in Thy pure ray
As black as on the judgment day;

Let perfectlove apply the test,
And all that’s wrong make manifest.
Martin Luther tells about the dream he once had in which Satan setbefore
him on a greatscroll all of his sins and manifold iniquities. Luther didn’t
argue with the devil, he just admitted eachone without denying any of them.
In his dream, he simply scrawled1 John 1:7 across the list: “The blood of
Jesus, His Son, purifies us from all sin.” (Brian Bill -1 John 1:5-2:2)
C H Spurgeon has this note on 1John1:7 in his devotional Daily Help…
AS he is in the light! Can we ever attain to this? Shall we ever be able to walk
as clearly in the light as he is whom we call “Our Father,” of whom it is
written, “God is light, and in him is no darkness atall?” Certainly, this is the
model which is setbefore us, for the Saviour himself said, “Be ye perfect, even
as your Father who is in heaven is perfect;” and although we may feelthat we
can never rival the perfectionof God, yet we are to seek afterit, and never be
satisfieduntil we attain to it.
(In His Exposition Spurgeoncomments on 1Jn 1:7) So that, in the very highest
state to which we can attain in this world, namely, walking in the light, as God
is in the light, and having fellowship with him, even then we shall sin, and
shall still need the blood of Christ to cleanse us from its stain. So those err
exceedinglywho saythat the Christian man can or does live utterly free from
sin. Either they have loweredthe standard by which they judge the actions of
men, or they excuse themselves onsome Antinomian principle, or else they
must be altogetherignorant of the truth about the matter; for “if we walk in
the light, as God is in the light,” and have fellowship with him, still “the blood
of Jesus Christ his Son cleansethus from all sin;” and, therefore, there is sin
needing to be cleansed, for Christ does no work as a superfluity. But what a
mercy it is for us to feelthe continual cleansing of the precious blood of Jesus,
so that, if we sin through ignorance, orif we sin by omissionor by
commission, that precious blood constantly keeps us so pure, that we can still
walk with God!

Jesus was cleansing us from all sin

Jesus was cleansing us from all sin

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